Henry Lee - Video Game Addiction: How to End Your Video Game Addiction Once and For All

Video Game Addiction

How to End Your Video Game Addiction Once and For All

Table of Contents

I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book, Video Game Addiction How to End Your Video Game Addiction Once and for All

This book contains proven steps and strategies on how to end your video game addiction.

As someone who used to be addicted to video games, I hope that the tips and strategies in this book will help you overcome this huge problem. They were effective for me, and I have every confidence they will work just as well for you.

Thanks again for downloading this book, I hope you enjoy it!

These days, everybody plays video games. New technology has made them more accessible than ever: even if you dont have a PlayStation or an Xbox 360 at home, you probably have games on your computer or your smart phone (even if its only a simple puzzle game to help you pass the time during your daily commute).

How many times have we been waiting at line and just pulled up Candy Crush to kill a few minutes?

Aside from the fact that they are simply good fun, there are a number of benefits that come from playing video games. Scientific studies have shown that they can improve hand-eye coordination and reaction time, and it is likely that they help with reasoning skills as well.

Some games offer people opportunities to make new friends, and in many cases they offer a much-needed escape from the grind of daily life. However there is a dark side to this: it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

Video game addiction is a very real problem, and, while it may not be immediately life threatening, it needs to be addressed as the serious issue that it is.

People who have suffered from it (or watched loved ones suffer) will not hesitate to classify it together with alcoholism, smoking and gambling. In fact, it is so significant and prevalent that the American Medical Association strongly encourages that video game addiction be formally considered as a diagnostic mental disorder.

But how can you tell when youre hooked? When does your love for games turn into an addiction?

It Stops Being a Good When It Starts Being Disruptive

The rule of thumb here is that a fondness for video games becomes a full-blown addiction when it begins to disrupt your life. Binge gaming every other weekend is fine.

Playing for half an hour or so every evening to help you unwind at the end of a long day is also all right. The problem starts when your need to play and your obsessive preoccupation with video games spill over and interfere with other aspects of your life.

Go through the following list and think hard about each item. If you show one or more of these signs, it is highly likely that you are suffering from a video game addiction:

1. You are extremely happy while playing video games, and get angry, irritable or depressed when you have to stop.
2. You constantly think about games even while you are doing other things.
3. You tend to neglect things like work or school requirements as long as you can go on playing you simply dont find them as interesting or as important.
4. You spend more time playing than you do with your friends.
5. You need to spend longer amounts of time playing in order to feel satisfied.
6. You lie when people ask you how you spend your time on the computer or console.
7. You skip meals and neglect personal hygiene in order to keep playing for longer periods of time.
8. Your sleeping patterns become disrupted.
9. You dream about the game when you do get to sleep.
10. You spend a large amount of money on your games and game-related merchandise.

Try Looking at Your Behavior from a Different Point of View

Identifying a gaming addiction on your own can be tricky, however, and this can be a problem since addiction has to be acknowledged before it can be remedied.

You are not always the best judge of your own behavior, and true video game addicts usually find ways to justify at least to themselves their compulsion to play.

Excuses such as I dont play nearly as much as some other people and I wont be able to function if I dont get to play because video games are my happy place often crop up in the face of blatant, problematic addiction, even when concerned friends and relatives do their best to point it out.

If you are having difficulty with the idea that you might be addicted to gaming, try and look at your behavior from a different point of view or an outside perspective. Lets say were not talking about video games here: what would you think of someone who acted the same way about a TV or book series? If you would say that they need to ease up on their obsession, then so do you. The only thing that remains is for you to do something about it.

When you recognize your video game addiction for what it is, it wont take you long to decide that something has to be done about it. It is easy to make the decision to quit. After all, its the right thing to do, and the only way to save yourself and you loved ones a lot of grief. What isnt so easy is acting on this.

A lot of gaming addicts start out with the best intentions, but without a good plan to bolster these, nothing ever comes of them and they remain with their fingers glued to their consoles.

This chapter will help you achieve an understanding of your addiction so you can turn your good intentions into a solid, effective plan that wont leave you stranded in a limbo where you are fully aware of your addiction but are unable to do anything about it.

Before anything else, you should take a moment to reflect on the nature of your love for video games, or rather what it is about them that you love so much.

Try to identify exactly what youre hooked on in your favorite game. Is there a particular series that youve been following since it first came out, eagerly awaiting each new edition? Or is it a certain genre that tickles your fancy are all your games first-person shooter ones or high fantasy adventures? Or maybe you enjoy games that let you build your character or even the entire world from the ground up?

For me, I was hooked on Role Playing Games, such as the Final Fantasy series. I simply could not function if I did not spend hours playing the game every day. Final Fantasy offered an escape from the reality that I was facing, with an amazing storyline and characters that I felt I could identify with.

Whatever it is, pinpointing the exact details that keep you coming back for more will go a long way towards beating your gaming addiction. When you know what it is you crave, you will better be able to avoid it in the future, and can thus come up with a more effective plan for kicking the habit. As Sun Tzu said in his Art of War, you must not only understand your enemies, but you must also understand yourself.

It is often the case that the games arent the only thing to blame when addiction occurs. Aside from the fact that playing makes you a much happier person, there might be external things that drive you to seek refuge in gaming.

These external factors, or triggers, may be physical or mental cues that you were not overtly aware of when you started out. Try to pay more attention to whats happening around you and whats going on inside your head the next time you sit down to play.

Do you feel the urge to play more strongly after you have a negative encounter with a certain person? Or perhaps you find that its easier to lose yourself in the game than to think of difficult things like finances or your love life?